Zambia: Early Child Marriages Blamed for Gender Violence

By Mike Mwenda

LUSAKA--Chikondano is a small village located in the outskirt of Lusaka. It has about 300 inhabitants. The village acting chairman Danken Mwale says that during the 2010 census, it was estimated that Zambia had a population of 13, 456,508. Out of this, 51% were female and 49% were male.

 “Sexual assault and early marriages is so common in our village more especially in young girls in my village that are being married off  to old husbands”, Mwale said. 

Mr. Mwale said that, the government should learn something from what the media has continued framing and priming over issues regarding gender based violence and early marriage, and impose stiff punishments to the vice.

“Whilst the government through the police service have continued to detect and punish offenders this has generally given a clear indication that the punishments are minimal and deserve be strengthened further”, Mwale said. 

 He said that, he does not like to look down at the girl child in his village, and that he tends to wonder why girls should be denied an equal access to education just the same service being rendered to boys.

Mr. Mwale has expressed disappointments in continuous attack to the girls in whom we proclaimed to be the future leaders of tomorrow, claiming that the worst thing that a society can ever do is to neglect the life of Women in society.

Meanwhile, a senior Citizen of Chikondano village Mrs Christine Malunga has said that, girls who marry early also may be at a greater risk of physical violence at the hands of their husbands.  As with sexual violence, the increased risk may be associated with age and differentials of power due to the fact that women are physically weak as compared to the other party.

 She stressed that, the  lack of social networks and economic asserts, as well as low self – esteem, make child brides less likely to leave abusive husbands and more likely to tolerate abusive husbands.

“Girls who try to escape early in abusive marriages risk attribution from their husbands as well as their biological families”, Mrs. Malunga reiterated.

She said that, husbands of young wives are often significantly older and therefore more likely to die before their wives.

Meanwhile, Mthunzi Center Clinic Officer Isaac Banda says the physical dangers associated with domestic violence, in child early marriage posses many other health risks. This is because of the greater permeability of their vaginal, tissue and other biological factors like hormone fluctuations because girls are more vulnerable than mature women to sexually transmitted infections, which include Syphilis and HIV/AIDS.

He says that, fighting child early marriage in Zambia has not been given considerable attention. Much of this effort should involve the government, Police, Traditional leaders, individual self conscious and the NGOs respectively.

According to Mr Mwale, the government should adopt and enforce laws that both prohibit child marriage and ensure that girls have equal access to education. He says this can only be done through the application of responsibility; change the attitudes, behaviour of the community and religious leaders whose complexity allows child marriage to continue in the village.